Turns out that AJ Taudevin, who wrote Chalk Farm with Kieran Hurley, and Julia Taudevin, who appears in the 55-minute play with Thomas Dennis, are the same person. That's another way of saying that the charged feeling expressed by the mother in the one-act is shared by both author and actor and therefore movingly synergistic.

Film festival programmers rarely create festivals full of films built around a single theme. Yet quite unintentionally, I spent Friday seeing five films that dealt with the idea of abandonment, reunion and reconciliation.

What's the deal with the puppets? Puppets, like cartoons, used to be for kids. But these days, they're more often conduits for high-brow visual lyricism. Clearly, we in New York are having a puppet moment.

From what I gathered during our interview, the law firm industry is making a fundamental shift. They are modernizing the shop, using social media to engage communities and demonstrate their legal expertise.